Timothy P. Mattimoe
Philadelphia Historic Preservation Corporation
Inspired March-April 1989
Preserving the Rural Church
NORTH CAROLINA 'S HISTORIC PRIMITIVE BAPTIST CHURCH HOUSE
Timothy Mattimoe teaches history and anthropology at Beaufort County Community College in Washington, North Carolina. He recently conducted a survey of Primitive Baptist church houses.
Blount's Creek Primitive Baptist Church was established in 1812 near the Pamlico River in tidewater Beaufort County, North Carolina. Its late 19th-century church house is a classic example of rural Primitive Baptist structures which are common to eastern North Carolina and the southern states in general. The church has a one-room, gablefront building covered with plain weatherboards and a seamed tin roof. Unfortunately, the austerely simple building and the way of life it represent, may both be endangered. With only one living member of the church, it has no pastor, and services have not been held on a regular basis for more than 20 years. Therefore although the building is structurally sound, the church house has fallen into a state of neglect. Given the potential for vandalism and the effects of weather, termites and powder-post beetles on the wood structure and its furnishings, it is not likely to survive much longer without renovation and preservation.
By contrast the pre-1829 Primitive Baptist Church house in the town of Bear Grass is in excellent condition. The Bear Grass congregation though small, is active and holds regular services. Its nembers also recognize both the beauty and historical importance of the building and have the means to maintain it.
The Blount's Creek and Bear Grass buildings represent both short and longterm problems involved in keeping these important parts of North Carolina's religious and social heritage in existence in an increasingly hostile environment. The future of these and other similar structures is dependent on both the pecialnature of Primitive Baptist religious culture and state laws.
The Primitive Baptists are a relatively small group independant Protestant churches found throughout the United States, but concentrated primarily in the South. Formed in 1827, the Primitive Baptists are distinguished by their belief in predestination, independence of individual congregations and, for the most part, the use of small, relatively unadorned, church houses. Like other Christians, Primitive Baptists believe that God does not dwell in a building but in individual believers and groups of believers. The church house, therefore, is of little consequence and to make it grandiose would, to members be pointless. In practice, most of the church houses were built by small farmers and others of limited means.
Primitive Baptists do not tithe, nor do they normally engage in rundraising activities to finance the building of church houses. therefore most rural congregations worship in small, relatively austere frame buildings.& Nevertheless, many of the existing church houses in eastern North Carolina are impressive because of their simplicity and purity of design. Many are also historically important as they represent a rapidly diminishing number of ante-bellum buildings still extant and in Often they mark the sites of the first organized Christian congregations in their raspsentive localities.
In recent years, the continued existence of these church buildings has been threatened as individual congregations become so small that they can no longer properly care for their buildings, and allow the church houses to deteriorate. In other cases, if the last church member dies and the congregation ceases to exist, the building will often be abandoned and fall into ruin or be razed. Although these alternatives maybe unfortunate for both aesthetic and historical reasons, North Carolina law and Primitive Baptist tradition and Politics make them unavoidable.
According to state 1, title to the Kehukee Primitive Baptist Church in Halifax County (left) was saved from destruction by two interested patrons, while the Bear Grass church house (below) is struggling with a church property is held by a board of trustees, usually comprised of church members. If the church belongs to an association (an organization of allied independent congregations) and there are no trustees remaining when the last member dies, the title reverts to the association, which can dispose of the property as it sees fit. Moreover, Primitive Baptists and their associations oppose the conversion of their church houses to other uses or their sale to other church groups. In some cases, then, the property is sold with the stipulation that the church house be torn down!
The case of Blount's Creek church house is perhaps typical of the problems involved in maintaining a rural Primitive Baptist structure once the membership declines, even when there is a desire by someone in the congregation to do so. Blount's Creek was one of the first Christian congregations organized in the area and included some of the earliest settler families but has fallen on hard times in recent years. In the summer of 1988, the last living member of the church asked a group of non-Primitive Baptists in the community if they would help restore the building. The group agreed to become involved with the project on the basis of the building's religious, social and architectural significance.
The association to which Blount Creek belonged, although it provided no assistance to the church for many years, advised the church's last member to refuse the offer to restore the church house and to appoint a committee to further investigate the matter. The group that volunteered to work on the building reluctantly withdrew their offer of assistance in order to avoid confrontation. At present, it is not known what the association will do, if anything, about the deteriorating church house at Blount' Creek. There is no precedent among the Primitive Baptist churches in eastern North Carolina for an association to restore a church house.
The case of Bear Grass Primitive Baptist church house is somewhat different. The church house was built before the congregation itself was established in 1829 and has undergone several renovations since. Under the direction of one dedicated couple, the congregation has kept the building in good repair, making it one of the outstanding surviving examples of ante-bellum Primitive Baptist architecture in North Carolina. (In fact, the North Carolina Historic Preservation Foundation chose the Bear Grass church house for inclusion in a forthcoming book portraying outstanding examples of historic architecture in the state.) However, the present congregation is elderly and, in the long-run, the future of the building is in doubt.
In yet another case, the Kehukee church house near Scotland Neck in Halifax County was successfully preserved. The church, established in 1742, is the mother church of the Kehukee Association (established in 1769), one of the oldest Baptist associations in the state and the mother association of the Primitive Baptist movement in the country. In addition, the existing church house is an attractive example of 19th-century Primitive Baptist architecture. When the last member of the church died in the early 1970s, the Kehukee Primitive Baptist Association took title to the property, but instead of having the building torn down, allowed two non-Primitive Baptists to maintain the church house and grounds. Both men are interested in local history, admirers of the Primitive Baptists and have family members who belonged to the church and are buried in the adjacent cemetery.
There are other examples of existing Primitive Baptist congregations, in eastcrn North Carolina and elsewhere in the state, which are using and maintaining beautiful church houses built a century or more ago. However, as membership dwindles and some cease to exist, many church structures are likely to disappear, despite the growing awareness and increased study among non-Primitive Baptists of the buildings' historic and aesthetic values. Outsiders' opinions will probably have little effect on the process. But so long as rural Primitive Baptist congregations do exist, their church houses will continue to serve as important reminders of the religious and social history and the aesthetic values of people in rural communities across the South.